Student Blog: ECON201 - Online game for college credit

Created by Jim Thomas (North Carolina State University) on March 30, 2007

Just down the road from us at UNC-Greensboro, Dr. Jeffrey Sarbaum has guided the development on an on-line game, written entirely in Macromedia's Flash, that covers the entire syllabus of an ECON 201 course. For me, this was fascinating. We can talk all we want about how new technology MIGHT help to teach certain topics or concepts, but to try to put an entire semester into a game - that is audacious.   I don't think many of the folks in this community realize how difficult and time-consuming good game construction can be. Just as a 30 second TV commercial requires many hours of storyboarding, set design, rehearsal, filming and editing...30 seconds of computer game time can take many person-weeks to build. Trying to replicate the 30-40 hours of a standard college lecture-based course means an incredible investment of design time.

As a professional economist, Dr. Sarbaum understands these costs very well.   However, I think he is overly modest in describing the benefits of the game his group has produced. Yes, it is linear, and no, it does not have the photo-realistic graphics of the latest generation of console games, but I believe he has done the very hard work of translating traditional pedagogy into a game context. Furthermore, he has done a great job in situating the game within a broader course infrastructure. Students go through a course web page to directly access each of the four levels of the game. Each level contains three quests. Instructors closely monitor the progress of individual students and the entire class through the game. When something seems to be causing problems, Dr. Sarbaum records a podcast to more fully describe the difficult concept and posts in online to help the students overcome whatever obstacle is stopping them. Within the game, students are monitored and progressively stronger hints are offered when they get in trouble. In addition, Elluminate-enabled lectures on the web page allow traditional lecture+blackboard type instruction to be accessible to the students.

We often talk about the increased interactivity that games can provide, but I think we sometimes get a bit hypnotized by the visuals flowing in the direction from teacher to student. ECON201 does a great job of leveraging the potential of the reverse flow - from student to teacher.   Quizzes assess student progress more frequently and more in depth (up to 250% more) than traditional teaching. Another great innovation is that the creation of new content for the game has been administered through one of economists' favorite mechanisms: the auction. How many pizzas does it take to get a "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" parody in the game? As it turns out, fewer than some of the bidders should have settled for, and less than the instructor would have otherwise needed to pay.   For game design, like programming in general is always more difficult and time-consuming that we think - even those of us with years of experience underestimating previous jobs. Thus, an auction works to the advantage of the game's patron.

I look forward to hearing more about this game in the future. Over the summer, Dr. Sarbaum's team plans for an intensive analysis comparing the effectiveness of this online game to a control group taking a traditional lecture-based version.

Jim Thomas

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		Student Blog: ECON201 - Online game for college credit Created by Jim Thomas (North Carolina State University) on March 30, 2007 Just down the road from us at UNC-Greensboro, Dr. Jeffrey Sarbaum has guided the development on an on-line game, written entirely in Macromedia's Flash, that covers the entire syllabus of an ECON 201 course. For me, this was fascinating. We can talk all we want about how new technology MIGHT help to teach certain topics or concepts, but to try to put an entire semester into a game - that is audacious. I don't think many of the folks in this community realize how difficult and time-consuming good game construction can be. Just as a 30 second TV commercial requires many hours of storyboarding, set design, rehearsal, filming and editing...30 seconds of computer game time can take many person-weeks to build. Trying to replicate the 30-40 hours of a standard college lecture-based course means an incredible investment of design time. As a professional economist, Dr. Sarbaum understands these costs very well. However, I think he is overly modest in describing the benefits of the game his group has produced. Yes, it is linear, and no, it does not have the photo-realistic graphics of the latest generation of console games, but I believe he has done the very hard work of translating traditional pedagogy into a game context. Furthermore, he has done a great job in situating the game within a broader course infrastructure. Students go through a course web page to directly access each of the four levels of the game. Each level contains three quests. Instructors closely monitor the progress of individual students and the entire class through the game. When something seems to be causing problems, Dr. Sarbaum records a podcast to more fully describe the difficult concept and posts in online to help the students overcome whatever obstacle is stopping them. Within the game, students are monitored and progressively stronger hints are offered when they get in trouble. In addition, Elluminate-enabled lectures on the web page allow traditional lecture+blackboard type instruction to be accessible to the students. We often talk about the increased interactivity that games can provide, but I think we sometimes get a bit hypnotized by the visuals flowing in the direction from teacher to student. ECON201 does a great job of leveraging the potential of the reverse flow - from student to teacher. Quizzes assess student progress more frequently and more in depth (up to 250% more) than traditional teaching. Another great innovation is that the creation of new content for the game has been administered through one of economists' favorite mechanisms: the auction. How many pizzas does it take to get a "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" parody in the game? As it turns out, fewer than some of the bidders should have settled for, and less than the instructor would have otherwise needed to pay. For game design, like programming in general is always more difficult and time-consuming that we think - even those of us with years of experience underestimating previous jobs. Thus, an auction works to the advantage of the game's patron. I look forward to hearing more about this game in the future. Over the summer, Dr. Sarbaum's team plans for an intensive analysis comparing the effectiveness of this online game to a control group taking a traditional lecture-based version. Jim Thomas Conference Coverage \| ELI_07_SpringFocusSession \| immersive learning environments and simulations Jim's blog Login or register to post comments 3305 reads
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